Doctor Who S5 01: Waiting For the Shoe to Drop
Sorry to be late, we all came down sick for Easter. I actually looked forward to this episode, which I haven't done anything from BBC Wales since Torchwood: Children of Earth (including, through no fault of its own, Merlin S2).
The story was nice. It consisted almost entirely of setting up new Companion Amy Pond and what looked like the season story arc. Amy was great. I loved what we saw of the character, but there were bits -- I'll get to them later.
Eleven -- I'm not entirely sold on him. He's got the energy and the attitude, but I didn't see much depth. The problem for a youngish man playing the Doctor is that you have to convey that you are an old man inside a young man's body. Peter Davidson pulled it off beautifully right from the start. Paul McGann sort of got it. It took David Tennant a while to get it, but by the end of S2 he had it nailed and achieved a pinnacle of perfection with it at the climax of Human Nature/Family of Blood. But I didn't really see it last night, although dh says he saw it in Eleven's constant attempts to prove his credentials. Well, he's got 12 more episodes to convince me.
The story was all right. Loved the "rifling the doctors' lockers for clothes" scene, an homage to Three and Eight doing the same thing. But being a paranoid sod, there were things I couldn't help wondering. Like:
1) Who put that crack there?
2) How did Prisoner Zero know the Doctor was a Time Lord?
3) Did something else come through that crack? Something that wasn't a fugitive from the Atraxi, and didn't have Zero's need to lie low?
4) Amy Pond spent years telling everyone who would listen about "the raggedy doctor" who was going to come back for her. Torchwood had to know. UNIT had to know. Who else knows?
5) If I did want to find the Doctor I'd put that house under survaillance with a tracker on hand. I could train a camera on the house, or on the garden, but the best place to install a Doctor-tracker would be -- inside Amy Pond.
6) And the best way to bait a trap for the Doctor would be with Amy.
I haven't seen any spoilers, or even any interviews, for the new series. But that's what I'd do if I were writing it.
The story was nice. It consisted almost entirely of setting up new Companion Amy Pond and what looked like the season story arc. Amy was great. I loved what we saw of the character, but there were bits -- I'll get to them later.
Eleven -- I'm not entirely sold on him. He's got the energy and the attitude, but I didn't see much depth. The problem for a youngish man playing the Doctor is that you have to convey that you are an old man inside a young man's body. Peter Davidson pulled it off beautifully right from the start. Paul McGann sort of got it. It took David Tennant a while to get it, but by the end of S2 he had it nailed and achieved a pinnacle of perfection with it at the climax of Human Nature/Family of Blood. But I didn't really see it last night, although dh says he saw it in Eleven's constant attempts to prove his credentials. Well, he's got 12 more episodes to convince me.
The story was all right. Loved the "rifling the doctors' lockers for clothes" scene, an homage to Three and Eight doing the same thing. But being a paranoid sod, there were things I couldn't help wondering. Like:
1) Who put that crack there?
2) How did Prisoner Zero know the Doctor was a Time Lord?
3) Did something else come through that crack? Something that wasn't a fugitive from the Atraxi, and didn't have Zero's need to lie low?
4) Amy Pond spent years telling everyone who would listen about "the raggedy doctor" who was going to come back for her. Torchwood had to know. UNIT had to know. Who else knows?
5) If I did want to find the Doctor I'd put that house under survaillance with a tracker on hand. I could train a camera on the house, or on the garden, but the best place to install a Doctor-tracker would be -- inside Amy Pond.
6) And the best way to bait a trap for the Doctor would be with Amy.
I haven't seen any spoilers, or even any interviews, for the new series. But that's what I'd do if I were writing it.